Wow! That’s thought provoking stuff. It should motivate us to complete our preparations though we won’t need a casket.
Maybe there are urns that can be finished.

Your newsletter is so poignant and I found myself very still and quiet as I read it. I was immersed in it and felt with you the feelings of your heart. Thank you for sharing so intimate a look into your lives.

My heart is just overflowing with feelings –love, grief, compassion, support, empathy, –as I hold your shared thoughts and feelings within. I want to say I understand, but perhaps it’s simply my identifying with your own experience. The oyster image is a daily experience for me too.
The heart that contracts from seeing a familiar name among the deceased… that’s happened already in my community, but your intimacy of 45 years among FOUR only is unique. Thank you for expressing so clearly your life as it is unfolding. And for adding Bernie’s and Lorene’s presence as they go before us. I will be 80 this March—it seems kind of surreal, but I know the numbers don’t lie!
I love you all so much. It’s a consolation to imagine that whatever heaven will be like, there will be communion in GOD with all whom we’ve loved!

Wow! Big changes! I pray that each of you receives what you are needing in this process. We are the elders now, and it doesn’t seem possible! I redid my will, health directive, planned my funeral etc. last summer to make it simpler for Mara when the time comes. It is an interesting process, but I rather enjoyed “getting things in order.”

thank you for this excellent and moving piece of writing — your compassionate and spiritual clarity is very good to hear and helpful.

I trust that you will do what is best for your sisters. None of the answers are easy and centering prayer will help you to stay in the sacrament of the present moment.